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Honored
10 years ago
Dragonwuff Musings
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Vrghr has been blessed with working in a wonderful environment at his current job. The whole crew are great. They go out of their way to help one another. Though we are part of a larger company which is frequently the "poster child" for a large, uncaring, bureaucratic mega-business (it is not without reason that Dilbert drew a lot of his inspiration for dysfunctional businesses from one of our subsidiaries), this local shop feels much more like a group of friends and family than the supposedly cold and heartless corporate monolith its supposed to be.
One of our keystones is our Office Administrator. She's been with us for years, and keeps us all sane and on track. She really is "mother" to this group of characters. Wuff doesn't know what we'd do without her.
Her Birthday is this Friday. In celebration, the west coast regional manager (who happens to work out of an office within our complex), proposed taking her out to Lunch on Friday, with the rest of the office joining in the celebration. Knowing the boss, this wouldn't have been a little trip to "Village Inn" or a local greasy spoon, unless she specifically requested one as a preference.
But she just surprised the heck out of this wuff! Instead of an upscale lunch, she requested, "How about a breakfast instead? (Vrghr) is in town, could he cook us breakfast?"
Let me tell you, this wuffy was floored! She asked if it was okay with your humble fluff-wuff. Okay?! I'm Honored! Certainly it is okay! You name your favorite dish, and this wuff will be sure to make it for you!
She'd like an omelet. Specifically, a mushroom and cheese omelet.
So Friday morning, this wuff is going to be setting up a cook-to-order Omelet Parlor at work. Bringing in the induction hob and another cooktop, skillets, eggs, and lots of goodies to add in: ham, onions, tomatoes, bacon, spinach, and of course, cheese and mushrooms! We're only going to have 6 to 8 folks here, but wuff is going to be sure they all get what they want in their special omelet.
How could Vrghr do less?
But when wuffy heard she'd asked for that, it was just..... wow!
So, if you see a shadow cross the moon tonight, it'll be a floofy ol' dragonwolf chasing his heart. We'll both be soaring!
Vrghr Dragonwolf
One of our keystones is our Office Administrator. She's been with us for years, and keeps us all sane and on track. She really is "mother" to this group of characters. Wuff doesn't know what we'd do without her.
Her Birthday is this Friday. In celebration, the west coast regional manager (who happens to work out of an office within our complex), proposed taking her out to Lunch on Friday, with the rest of the office joining in the celebration. Knowing the boss, this wouldn't have been a little trip to "Village Inn" or a local greasy spoon, unless she specifically requested one as a preference.
But she just surprised the heck out of this wuff! Instead of an upscale lunch, she requested, "How about a breakfast instead? (Vrghr) is in town, could he cook us breakfast?"
Let me tell you, this wuffy was floored! She asked if it was okay with your humble fluff-wuff. Okay?! I'm Honored! Certainly it is okay! You name your favorite dish, and this wuff will be sure to make it for you!
She'd like an omelet. Specifically, a mushroom and cheese omelet.
So Friday morning, this wuff is going to be setting up a cook-to-order Omelet Parlor at work. Bringing in the induction hob and another cooktop, skillets, eggs, and lots of goodies to add in: ham, onions, tomatoes, bacon, spinach, and of course, cheese and mushrooms! We're only going to have 6 to 8 folks here, but wuff is going to be sure they all get what they want in their special omelet.
How could Vrghr do less?
But when wuffy heard she'd asked for that, it was just..... wow!
So, if you see a shadow cross the moon tonight, it'll be a floofy ol' dragonwolf chasing his heart. We'll both be soaring!
Vrghr Dragonwolf
Wuff's going to try very hard to make these "special". No canned mushrooms for her - wuff going so sauté up some nice mixed 'shrooms in butter and a bit of garlic. And same for the onions for others, though might "cheat" a little and sauté some shallots instead until they're translucent and sweetened. Going to be picking up a selection of nice cheeses and grating them together; none of this "imitation cheese food" stuff for the crew!
Not a Whole lot one can do to really push the envelope on an omelet, but this wuff is determined to do his best!
One of wuff's teammates is bringing in some fresh fruit. Another is bringing some "interesting" (their word) fruit juices. And Vrghr was considering doing up some nice fried diced red-skinned potatoes with onions, garlic, herbs (marjoram/tarragon/etc.), and butter.
Also likely to have some Hollandaise, salsa, and creme fraiche available for toppings if folks wish some.
~~~
We have a very large electric skillet at work, but making the potatoes fully from scratch there will take quite a few minutes. And we want to have everyone ready to start eating by 8 AM. So wuff will speed the morning cooking a wee bit but still make the 'taters fresh like so.
1) Take about a pound and a half of red-skinned or yellow skinned potatoes. Wash, but don't peel.
2) Cut into 3/8 to 1/2 inch dice.
3) Par boil in boiling water, seasoned with salt, parsley, and granulated garlic. Cook until they begin to get a little tender, but aren't completely "ready to mash" texture (about 8-10 minutes).
4) Drain, and pack in a gallon zip-top bag for the next morning. Refrigerate.
5) While potatoes are boiling, chop a med-large onion into small dice. Mince 3-4 cloves of garlic. Package together in a small sandwich bag and refrigerate until the next morning.
6) On the day of the breakfast, set the electric skillet to High (400 degrees). A 3-4 Tbs of butter, and 1-2 Tbs of Olive Oil. Allow to heat until the foaming stops. Let heating continue until the butter begins to slightly color.
7) Add bag of onions/garlic. Stir about until the onions lose some of their sharp flavor (begin to turn translucent) and the garlic become fragrant (~3 minutes).
8) Pour in the bag of par-boiled potatoes. Stir to coat well with the garlic-onion flavored butter and olive oil. Spread into a single layer if possible and let fry until the bottom it browned slightly. (4-5 minutes)
9) Stir to bring new potato surface to bear on the hot skillet, and allow to brown again. Continue to stir and brown until all potatoes reach desired stage of toasty brownness.
10) Season with selected herbs (Tarragon, Marjoram, Parsley). Taste, and if desired, season with granulated garlic and onion, and salt and pepper.
11) Cover and reduce skillet heat to medium low. Allow potatoes to warm, covered, until serving time. Stir occasionally, as needed.
Hopefully this means wuff's 'taters will be ready to eat in about 20 minutes or so. Which means they'll be ready to start accompanying the omelets if wuffy arrives at 0730 for the make-to-order cooking to start at 8 AM.
Note: The same recipe can be used without parboiling the potatoes, but it means that the potatoes will need a steaming and cooking session in the electric skillet, either before or after the browning, of about 15-20 minutes, so they're tender all the way through, and nice and browned and crisp around the edges. Or you can just lower the heat of the skillet and take longer to do the browning on each side, thus cooking them more into the center. But the total time still goes up to about 1hr, start to finish.
My favourite breakfast at the moment, when I have time: I do a root veg mix of white potato, kumera (sweet potato), carrot, parsnip, broccoli stems and cauliflower stems with or without onion/garlic and or basil. Once it is half cooked I stir it up and toss it about a bit, then top with broccoli heads, cauliflower heads, bok choy or spinach and roughly chopped bacon. This then cooks until it's soft and I take the lid off the pan so that the liquid gets a chance to steam off a little and root veg gets a nice crust. I sometimes have pumpkin or tomato in it too.
If I'm really hungry, near the end I make a bed of the vegetables that is slightly dipped and crack 1 or 2 eggs on top, let that cook and serve it all up on a big plate with a bit of salt and pepper.
*hugs*
You ought to photo that and submit it to FACCC. That's a very luscious and creative idea there!
*tethers rope even more securely while we can enjoy da wuff's cookin'!* ;)